Therefore I will look unto the Lord

Sermon notes from Sunday 5 January 2020

Micah 7 verses 1 - 11

"Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." (verse 7)

Micah was a holy man of God, set apart by God.  He starts this verse with the word "therefore" and we have to ask the question - what is it there fore?  Is there some difficulty in our lives, something hard, something we cannot get around?  Here is God`s word for us!  The setting of Micah was in one of the darkest of the days.  We think today as being the darkest day but in Micah`s day it was far worse.  Chapter 1 verse 1 "the word of the Lord came unto me."  Will we be those who seek after the Lord?  There was Micah going about his normal day`s business, society was crumbling, falling apart when he was called to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world in those dark days.  We are the same - the Lord has placed us in a certain place that we might be the light in the darkness.  You don`t take a lamp and hide it but you set it up to be seen by all people.  Therefore, because of the darkest of times Micah would turn unto the Lord.  Is it dark in your home, is God not answering your prayers any more?  Do you feel cold and miserable?  Micah in this verse resolves to look to the Lord, not to a church, not to a preacher or evangelist but to the Lord.

There was a disloyalty in leadership.  Chapter 3 verse 1 "is it not for you to know judgment?"  Chapter 7 verse 5 "Trust ye not in a riend, put ye not confidence in a guide, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom."  The people should know better, the princes and heads of states should know how to judge properly.  There was injustice in the land.  These were the days of rich society - power, position and riches.  All these corrupt those in leadership.  That is why Paul said we should pray for those in authority over us.  Paul when writing to Timothy tells him to pray for all men, no-one should be outside of his prayer limits.  Then Paul goes on to tell Timothy to pray for kings - why - because of their power, their position and their authority.  The love of money is the root of all evil, not the money itself but the actual love of money.  Notice the apostle Paul could say in Romans we are to pray for those in authority over us.  Sometimes we feel that these are the darkest times the church has ever come through.  In the 1800`s Johann Tetzel was a Roman Catholic monk who came up with the great idea that he would go out and sell indulgences.  These were letters from the Pope himself stating that people`s sins were forgiven.  These were for those who had already died.  Martin Luther said he would look to the Lord and the Lord would answer them.  In the 1700`s John Wesley, Whitfield and others lived during the days when Parliament couldn`t operate because they couldn`t get enough people sober enough to sit in Parliament.  Wesley decided to stand and in doing so led to great revival.  There was a disloyalty in leadership.  There is a challenge for us today - to know judgment and to carry out God`s word.  In the days of Eli the priest in the Old Testament, Eli`s 2 sons were sinning before the Lord - they were turning the people away from the offering of the Lord.  We need to stand like Micah and wait for God to work in our day.

They were deceptive in the worship of God.  Micah was living among people who appeared to be religious, they engaged in religious ceremonies and rituals - chapter 1 verse 7 "And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires therefore shall be burned with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall return to the hire of an harlot."  Isaiah spoke similarly of religious deception going on in the land - chapter 1 veses 10 - 13.  Then in verses 15 to 18 God says what he wants them to do.  The people were coming bringint their sacrifices.  They were coming to the right place but somehow were just going through the motions.  Isaiah 29 verse 13 "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men."  We can see something in Micah 3 verses 5 to 7.  The prophets and priests were prophesying lies, leading the people astray.  They were only in it for the money, for what they could get out of for themselves.  They wanted an easy life with plenty of wealth.  There was no mention of repentance.  Today there is much easy believism being proclaimed and little mention of repentance.  There is no crying out for mercy, it is just a matter of looking to Jesus and everything will be OK.  Chapter 2 verse 11.  The people were gathering together, wanted to hear what these false teachers were teaching, didn`t want to hear about repentance and faith, they only wanted to show they were doing ok.    Paul in the New Testament warns us of a form of godliness in the last days.  That word "form" means a robe or a gown.  It means a covering up.

A dishonesty in the trading.  Micah 6 verse 11.  Trading standards were at an all time low, people were not acting straight.  It led to all sorts of waring and arguments.  They were using false weights.  When you wanted to buy you used a heavy weight and when you wanted to sell you used a lighter weight.  They were making the ephah too small and the shekel too large.  There was corruption in the government.  That led to a discontentment.  Remember Ahab and Naboth.  Ahab had all the riches of Israel but he wanted Naboth`s vineyard.  Naboth wouldn`t sell his vineyard.  Ahab went to bed and sulked.  Jezebel came and asked him what was wrong.  She went out and took the vineyard for Ahab.  This was the day Micah lived in.  Micah was able to turn away from that and look to the Lord.  We need to set the things of the past aside and look to God today.